Droxic

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Kamenitza AD is a leading brewing company in Bulgaria, part of one of the world’s largest brewers, Molson Coors. I work as a Corporate Affairs Manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Droxic, and what were your goals?

We hired Droxic to develop our new corporate website from scratch on Drupal, following the design of our global website. The goal of the project was to create a new, modern and appealing website for Kamenitza company.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We had a pitch with several companies and a few conversations with each one, after sending the brief and receiving their proposals. We liked the team of Droxic very much because of their professionalism, expertise in the development area on Drupal, and a good match between ours and their team.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We started the process with several online meetings between the two teams to be able to determine exactly what we want and how it can happen. Droxic had to develop a new website, following some design guidelines, and even create new and different pages from the main design that was to be followed. The website contained various pages and subpages.

Droxic team had to come up with the design of new pages - to be user-friendly, understandable, but also nice and attractive. They needed to define how to best match the colors of our brand with the new website, the perfect use of fonts, photos, etc. They also came up with the idea to turn two static infographics into interactive ones.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

I worked mainly with two people from their team - Manager and Account.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The project was delivered on time, in a perfect position, and within the agreed budget. The Droxic team really did great work.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

I can really say that the Droxic account representative of the project with whom I mostly worked was a high-quality professional. He was extremely supportive throughout the whole project. He was explaining processes to me, various terms I was not aware of, giving solutions and creative ideas on how things can be done better.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Their professionalism, good, friendly, and results-oriented team was most impressive.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Nothing comes to my mind.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

GASAG AG is the leading energy supplier in the Berlin/Brandenburg area (Germany). We are active in the market for more than 170 years. As the Director Marketing Tech, I am responsible for all websites, selfservice portals and API management at GASAG group.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Droxic, and what were your goals?

Designing and developing frontend and backend for a new company-website, based on a Sitecore CMS.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Personal recommendations, a clear customer focused approach, needed solutions and experience in one company and a fair pricing

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

- UX-design from scratch, integrating a new corporate design - consultancy in finding the best technical solutions - frontend and backend development in a Sitecore environment - quality assurance - project management

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

2 backend developers 2 frontend developers 1 UX designer 1 project manager

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

After launching the new website, the conversion rate increased measurable and permanently. Customer and Stakeholders gave consistently positive feedback, especially concerning website usability.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We were working with Microsoft Teams and youtrack. The droxic team adapated fast to the existing GASAG systems and processes.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They were a customer-focused team, committed, quick work and reactions, good source code and UX

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Adding a QA expert from the beginning of a project. We added it for other projects.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Digital consultancy and design agency. My role was the Chairman and Founder

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Droxic, and what were your goals?

Droxic were commissioned to provide development for multiple website projects as we lacked the resources to deliver with our inhouse team. These projects spanned different technologies including Sitecore, Umbraco, Drupal and WordPress. Droxic also took on the day-to-day maintenance of existing clients allowing our agency to concentrate on consultancy and design.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Droxic were selected after competitive review and the successful completion of a trial project. Reasons for selection were quality of delivery, cost, flexibility and cultural fit.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We had multiple projects running at any one time, but the bulk of the websites were built using Sitecore and Umbraco. Droxic adopted our project management process which enable our teams to work seamlessly together.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

A project manager was our main point of contact, but we also had direct contact with the developers when require. Our team within Droxic varied between 1 and 4 developers plus the project manager depending on the volume of work.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Working with Droxic enable our agency to deliver to budgets and timescales that would have been impossible with our in-house team.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Whilst there were some issues with project management initially this was undoubtably due to Droxic adopting our processes and were quickly resolved. Generally, communications was efficient and effective both with project management personnel and developers.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

All projects have issues where things don't go to plan when this happened Droxic always went the extra mile to resolve the problem no matter the reason for the issue.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

In any organisation there are always areas to imIn any organisation there are always areas that can be improved. Droxic encourage ongoing client feedback on their service, quickly resolving any areas of weakness identified to ensure the service stays premium.prove

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CMS Competence Lead at Siili Solutions, and we have about 700 employees. We provide support services such as creating custom software and consultancy to various industries.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Droxic?

Almost 10 years ago, we needed to expand our capacity and flexibility. We needed skills in certain products that we were implementing so Droxic provided us with engineers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Droxic provides us with people who help us build websites on various platforms such as Drupal. They also support us in coding, and we use several technologies including PHP, .NET, JavaScript, PHP, and more. Moreover, they have dedicated consultants who assist us in implementing web solutions so when we work on something, we have a mix of the internal team and Droxic’s team. 

What is the team composition?

In our biggest engagement, we’ve worked with 15 people from Droxic. Right now, we work with 11–12 people. Overall, we scale up and down depending on the project’s needs.

How did you come to work with Droxic?

We found them through a local recommendation, and at that time, their company was fairly small. Then, when we worked with Droxic before with another company, we were happy with the way their experts worked. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent more than $10 million. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in January 2014, and we continue working with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

We measure Droxic’s success based on how much work they can do for us. We also consider the quality of their work, and if they achieve 85% success, we consider that good work. They usually get feedback from our internal team, and we have annual reviews for each of Droxic’s consultants. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We highly value their ability to provide good experts in various fields and their cost-effective services. Usually, when we need someone to help us on a particular project, they always have someone with specific skills. For example, when we need a front- and backend developer expert, Droxic can provide a staff who’s well-versed in that field.

In conclusion, Droxic is good compared to other consultants we worked with before. Furthermore, it’s impressive that some of the people from Droxic have been working for us for six years already.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They can try to broaden the portfolio of technologies they support and increase the size of their employees to raise their capacity. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Go for it. Speak to them and leverage Droxic’s expertise.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Mirum Budapest provides wide range of product development services for curious brands and high-profile companies. I have been in touch with Droxic as responsible for partner relationships within the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Droxic?

One of our high-profile clients' continuous development stream peaked with multiple standalone spin-off projects, thus we have've reached out to Droxic to help us with staff augmentation.

What were your goals for this project?

Maintain and scale our PHP and Drupal development delivery capabilities, both from backend and frontend POV. The main goal was to be able to cover mid-term resourcing from engineering standpoint and maintain rock-solid technical delivery across the whole project portfolio.

Droxic contibuted with its Drupal and PHP engineering talent - matched with our internal development and project governance teams.

SOLUTION

How did you select Droxic?

We have had positive experiences on former projects with other technology stacks therefore we have engaged Droxic directly.

Describe the project in detail.

The scope of the project was to prioritize, scope, plan and develop diverse feature requirements defined by B2B and B2C focused client stakeholders.

What was the team composition?

The team composition has included frontend, backend and full stack Drupal Developer roles and has been mostly stead throughout the engagement. The team size has changed a few times slightly, based upon requirements - Droxic has been supportive and felxible to accomodate requirements.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

As the project streams we have worked on were mostly staff augmentations, we can say that we have scaled up and cemented our bandwith of technical delivery across the project portfolio. We have successfully delivered 2 additional short lifecycle projects without jeoperdazing our CD/CI streams - for the satisfaction of our client.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We have created a fully blended project team with Droxic - and from week one there was only 'one team'. The workflow was pleasantly effective after the 'first ramp up sprint'.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The engineers we worked with were highly professional and performed well. They were flexible, effective, and made no trade-off on code quality. Their attitude has been extremely rewarding to work with.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Our team has been pleased working with Droxic's engineers and happy to work again in the future.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Viessmann is a large corporation in the energy and fleeting sector. The company is building oilers and energy-production plants from small-scale, single-family households to industry-grade systems. I am responsible for digital products—namely the apps and services provided by our company to end-customers and businesses. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Droxic?

While at my current position, I needed UX design help for prototyping an app for heating monitoring and remote maintenance. I wanted quick and high-quality support, without having internal resources to do so. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Droxic acted as a full member of the team and provided 2 design resources. I had a designer who briefed them [Droxic] and steered their activity, but they actually handled the execution of the creative work. We defined a requisite framework of communication tools for the design—Zeplin and Sketch. Droxic came up with the full prototype design in the end.  

Previously, Droxic provided app development resources for a number of organizations that I’d worked with, including Delivery Hero, a unicorn startup in Berlin providing food-delivery services. For that engagement, they provided app and web development resources.

I also worked with them for Door2Door, a small startup providing mobility services like aggregated public-transport data and directions. We also worked for Allygator, a crowd-based delivery service.  

How did you come to work with Droxic?

I believe that they gave us a cold call and offered to work on a test project. This occurred several years ago.

How much have you invested with Droxic?

The cost of this project was $10,000 or slightly less.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started this project with Droxic in June 2016. The project ended in September. The initial project I worked on with Droxic occurred in 2011, and that involved native app and web development. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or impact of the engagement?

Their work was highly appreciated by the company. I only received positive comments.

How did Droxic perform from a project management standpoint?

They were reliable and pragmatic. The feedback from our end came slowly and sporadically, but this defect was compensated by Droxic’s team, who worked on weekends and holidays, which was beyond the initial agreement. We mainly communicated through Skype and Google Hangouts.

What did you find most impressive about Droxic?

I appreciated having access to a multitude of competencies under 1 roof. Droxic was able to help across multiple projects. The last project had tough timelines, but they kept to our schedule and delivered a good result, under the circumstances.

Are there any areas Droxic could improve?

Nothing is perfect, but Droxic always embraced and executed our feedback. For this relatively short project, I can’t point out any possible improvements on their end. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a partner at Mediaman, a digital agency working out of Germany, Shanghai and Boston, with automotive and financial clients.

I am also the founder and managing director of MassUp, a child company of Mediaman. MassUp is an insurance product for mobile devices, pets and travel. It is available on every digital channel, from a white-label version on a bank’s website, to online shop plug-ins. Our technology is based on the Magento platform’s APIs. We have worked with Droxic for both companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Droxic?

The scalability of our teams’ resources. We have internal IT, but clients scale up from one day to another, and we had to cover demand. We are working with high-quality clients in the financial, insurance and automotive spaces, which requires a higher level of development. Scaling at this level is difficult, and we’re always looking for partners with whom we can work.  

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have worked with Droxic on website development, but, more significantly, on frontend, middleware and backend programming of digital applications, which can be online shops and card configurators. They have supplied Java developers, as well as ones for certain platforms, like Magento.

We may simply need a single coder and a team lead, but we may also hire a full team with special skill sets. MassUp is focused on the Magento e-commerce system, so we need 4 dedicated developers who can work on certain parts for us.

Droxic came in as part of the team and worked on our frameworks. With MassUp, we had a new build and framework, and Droxic started from scratch. We have been responsible for concepts and IT architectures internally, while Droxic provides development and maintenance on a continuous basis. This has been the most significant project with them, using a full team. Droxic’s HR has also hired some developers specifically for it.

How did you come to work with Droxic?

They called us 5 years ago, and we started a test job together. It worked out, and we continued to work together.

How much have you invested with Droxic?

The cost of their services has been between $250,000 and $300,000 overall. Their work on the MassUp project has had a cost of $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Droxic in October 2013. The MassUp collaboration started at the beginning of 2017, in January. The relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We are a B2B company. Although we have our own clients, we don’t have any end-user feedback.

MassUp has been working fine. It passed all tests and audits from Société Générale and has received certificates from other external IT audits. This was an important part for us, given that the bank had some very high-security standards. Passing all the tests is the best feedback we have. The second part is that it’s functional and making money.

How did Droxic perform from a project management standpoint?

They maintain a good standard. We can discuss what is and isn’t working with their team, and we can rework certain parts. The collaboration is at the same level as with the people in our own agency. The communication is good, and project management is done mainly from our side, with the managers on their team serving more as in-betweens.

We have regular meetings once a month, with the next one being set for 2 weeks from now. The rest of the communication is done via Skype. There is direct contact between our teams, and this works quite well. Droxic’s members speak English well.

What did you find most impressive about Droxic?

Their quality is the main point. We’ve tried different freelancers, both nearshore and offshore. With our second project, we had some problems with people leaving, and so on. Droxic has a very stable team which can deliver good quality. The fact that we selected the members together may have helped.

Are there any areas Droxic could improve?

Something we’re discussing at the moment is having a contact in Germany, who could communicate directly with Droxic’s team in Sofia, Bulgaria.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the founder and owner of CrewPlanner BV

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Droxic, and what were your goals?

We hired Droxic do develop an activitylog for our system. We supplied them with a product manager and a function sheet, the goal was to have a working code in 3 months.

SOLUTION

How did you select Droxic and what were the deciding factors?

We knew one of their sales representive in person and therefor wanted to outsource it to them.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We supplied them with a technical specification and gave them a direct line to our lead developer and product manager. They were to follow to specifications, code was to be written in PHP.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

1 sales rep 1 project mananger 1 developer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Major failure, code never worked and was full of bugs. Decided to pull the project from them.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

We communicated through Slack. They have no management style, they have no idea what they are doing.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

I have no idea where to start, in my opinion hire a better HR person and more qualified Managers.

Company Responses

The vendor responded on February 8, 2021.

We do not agree with the views/opinions given. 

Due to the complexity, we proposed to work 6 weeks on the project based on the list of items provided by the client (with a goal of full completion in 3 months). Never did we agree on delivering all the items from the list within the original contract of 6 weeks. 

Our goals were:

1. To understand the app and the items required.
2. Start to develop the new items.
3. Set up a structure for the best collaboration possible.
4. Once we have done our first 6 weeks, to come up with a plan/schedule for all items

Our communication was via Slack, email, phone, and a shared project showing all items and the status per item.

We faced several issues with missing user documentation, testing and review availability on the client’s side, and delay in getting replies feedback.

The complexity of the project lies in that we could have developed 1 set of items, but that would mean that it did not match another set of items, making it look like “bugs” although the functionality was working as agreed upon.

We spent a lot of goodwill, good intentions, several developers and time (over 20 weeks) based on the original contract of 6 weeks. And even after our new action plan and additional agreement, the client refused to respect the contract and the annex.

We wish the client a lot of success in completing the project with a different partner.